Bath Rugby prop Paul James has no qualms with Northampton Saints sin-binning

Bath Rugby prop Paul James has no qualms with referee Martin Fox’s decision to send him to the sin-bin during Saturday’s 43-25 Aviva Premiership defeat at Northampton Saints.

The visitors raced into an early 13-0 lead at Franklin’s Gardens before Wales international James was shown a yellow card midway through the first half for collapsing a maul on the Bath tryline during Saints’ first real spell of pressure.

Northampton capitalised and got over the whitewash within 60 seconds, kick-starting a run of four converted tries without reply to set themselves on the way to victory and end Bath’s 11-match winning run in the process.

Bath head coach Mike Ford said the card was “harsh” in the immediate aftermath of the match but James accepted his punishment.

“As a player I don’t feel it was a yellow, but it’s the ref’s decision and he has got the authority to do that,” said 48-cap James. “It was what it was and we just had to get on with it and move on.

“That’s the way the game goes. The ref made a call and they scored a try. We got ourselves back into it but there were a couple more errors and the game slipped away.”

Loosehead James said Bath had already highlighted where they need to improve when they return to action.

Having travelled to one established top-four side last weekend, Bath face another tough test on Sunday with a trip to Premiership champions Leicester Tigers.

“We are disappointed to lose but we have come away and looked at it and pinpointed one or two things to focus on this week to hopefully try to get back on our good run and keep on improving,” said James.

“Some parts of the game went well and we scored 25 points, but there were other areas where we let ourselves down. Now it’s about focusing on putting those things right and improving.

“We just focus on one game at a time. Yes we were on a nice run but we played Northampton and they are a good team and they were on their home patch.

“All we can do now is focus on this weekend and there is no better challenge than playing the Tigers up at their place.

“There’s no better team to go and face to try to bounce back and make up for the mistakes of last week. Hopefully we can put things right.”